As China struggles to contain the deadly coronavirus that originated in the city of Wuhan and has since spread throughout the world, disease experts have a grim outlook.
The pandemic naturally invites comparisons to the SARS outbreak of 2003, which killed over 700 people around the world. But Guan Yi, a virologist who helped identify SARS, told The Washington Post that “conservatively,” the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic is likely to be at least ten times as bad as SARS.
“A bigger outbreak is certain,” he told the Post.
SARS, Yi explained, didn’t spread nearly as readily as the Wuhan coronavirus, and was more isolated within well-defined regions of China.
In the picture taken yesterday, workers are seen producing face masks at a factory in Handan in China's northern Hebei province. The Wuhan government has ordered all residents to wear the medical product after the virus broke out in the city, leading authorities to lock it down
Dr. Guyan Yi, director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Hong Kong echoed concerns that the virus in Wuhan was already “uncontrollable”.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus has already spread to at least five countries, infecting at least 835 and killing at least 26, according to WaPo. But the numbers are ever-shifting and have been difficult to pin down, a problem that only complicates the official response to the pandemic.
According to a report from DailyMail, Dr. Yi stated that the “golden period” to contain and eradicate the virus had already passed.
“We have passed through the ‘golden period’ for prevention and control,” Yi told Caixin Magazine, per WaPo. “What’s more, we’ve got the holiday traffic rush and a dereliction of duty from certain officials.”
“I have experienced so much and never felt scared. Most viruses are controllable, but this time I am scared.” said Dr. Guan Yi.
Dr Guan Yi (pictured), director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Hong Kong, claimed that the situation in Wuhan was already 'uncontrollable'
The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak had already taken 25 lives and had infected 800 others. Meanwhile, the government had already shut down outgoing public transport from Wuhan.
So far, the Chinese government has quarantined entire cities and tried to control the flow of information surrounding the outbreak, moves that WaPo reports have residents feeling as though they’ve been left out to dry.
However, some scientists believe that though understandable, the shut down of transportation could only do little to prevent the virus. This was because the virus had already spread outside the city.
As per the report, Dr. Guan Yi who was in Wuhan this week said that he had to “escape” after observing an appalling lack of preventative measures by the local authorities.
Dr. Guan Yi and his team were the first to identify the SARS coronavirus during the epidemic. They tracked down the source to the masked palm civet.
Passengers from an international flight have their temperature checked as they pass a thermal scanner monitor upon arrival at the Adisucipto International Airport today in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Countries around Asia have stepped up health checks at airports and train stations.
Due to this discovery, he urged the government to ban wildlife markets which in turn, prevented the second outbreak of the virus.
However, due to loopholes in the law banning the sale of wildlife products, some stores were still able to sell otherwise banned products to the public.
On the eve of the Lunar New Year, transportation was shut down in at least 10 cities with a total of about 33 million people.
Scientists now believe that the virus may have possibly spread to humans from snakes or bats.
During an interview with Caixin, one of the biggest news outlets in China, Guan feared that a lot more people from Wuhan had already been infected than the number of SARS cases.
He also feared that the lockdown of Wuhan would do much to contain the virus as many of the infected had already left for the Chinese New Year. Dr. Guan said the sources of infection had “spread out completely”.
An eighth city in China is going into lockdown as officials battle to stop the spread of the deadly new coronavirus that has killed 25, left hundreds seriously ill and potentially infected thousands. Pictured, passengers arrive from the city of Wuhan - where the virus originated - arrive at Narita Airport in Chiba, Japan, today. One case has been confirmed in Japan
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This article first appeared on Daily Mail.
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